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Apple CEO Tim Cook leads the audience at the Worldwide Developer's Conference in a moment of silence in tribute to the victims of the Orlando nightclub massacre at an Apple event on June 13, 2016, in San Francisco.

Apple CEO Tim Cook addressed the massacre in Orlando and asked for a moment of silence Monday at the tech giant's annual developer's conference.

"At Apple, we celebrate our diversity. We know that it makes us stronger and moves everyone forward," Cook told the audience, saying the massacre of at least 49 people at a gay nightclub Sunday was a "senseless, unconscionable act of terrorism and hate, aimed at dividing and destroying."

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(Published Monday, June 13, 2016)

He called for silence, and as the audience hushed for a moment in the dark theater, Cook wiped a tear from his eye.

Having diversity in the world, Cook said Monday, “makes us stronger and moves everyone forward.”

Last spring, under Cook's leadership, Apple announced it was giving $50 million to nonprofits to recruit a more diverse tech workforce. Most recently, in March, Cook and other tech leaders signed letters of disapproval to the North Carolina's governor over a state law derided by the Department of Justice for limiting legal protections to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.